This study aims to determine the relationship between financial distress and systematic risk, the relationship between financial distress and profitability, the relationship between systematic risk and stock returns, the relationship between profitability and stock returns, and the indirect effect between financial distress and stock returns through systematic risk and company profitability. by collecting data on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on chemical companies and the element industry in 2018-2020. This study was conducted to find out the answers to the impact caused by the global economic turmoil. Using the PLS-SEM method and four latent variables, which are divided into one endogenous variable, two moderating variables and one exogenous variable, it is hoped that it can provide value for the statistical calculation activities carried out. This study uses a quantitative descriptive method with two moderating variables that link financial distress and stock returns. This study produces a specific indirect effect; the financial distress variable significantly impacts Stock Return through systematic risk and profitability variables with a p-value < 0.05. The main finding of this study is the significant impact of world economic turmoil that must be faced by creating systematic risk to convince. Investors and provide education to potential investors.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of production and operational costs, capital structure and company growth on profitability. The method used in this research is quantitative method, data collection is performed by distributing questionnaires among employees of packaging industry. The population in this study are industrial employees in Jabodetabek whose numbers have not been identified with certainty. The questionnaire is distributed electronically using a simple random sampling technique. The results of the questionnaire returned are 180 respondents. Based on the results of data analysis, it is concluded that Capital structure has a significant effect on profitability. An increase in the capital structure variable will be followed by an increase in profitability and a decrease in variable capital structure will be followed by a decrease in profitability. Company growth has no significant effect on profitability. An increase in the company growth variable will not be followed by an increase in profitability and a decrease in variable company growth will not be followed by a decrease in profitability. Operational cost has a significant effect on profitability. An increase in the operational cost variable will be followed by an increase in profitability and a decrease in variable operational cost will be followed by a decrease in profitability. Production cost has no significant effect on profitability. An increase in the production cost variable will not be followed by an increase in profitability and a decrease in variable production cost will not be followed by a decrease in profitability.

The study objects for determining whether or not a relationship exists between inventory management of the listed pharmaceutical firms at Amman Stock Exchange, and the profitability of these firms, and whether or not inventory management affects firm profitability. Only three pharmaceutical firms were found listed at Amman Stock Exchange by the end of 2020, and therefore, the annual data of the three firms along the period 2009-2019 were collected and used in the analysis and hypothesis testing. Inventory turnover and average inventory holding period were used as indicators for inventory management at a reciprocal form, whereas, return on assets was used as a measure of firm profitability. Using the Pearson correlation method, the analysis and hypothesis testing demonstrated that a significant positive relationship exists between inventory turnover and return on assets, and a negative significant relationship exists between average inventory holding period and return on assets. Moreover, using the ordinary least square method, the study shows that inventory management has a positive significant effect on firm profitability. More studies regarding inventory management and firm profitability relationships, are recommended to be performed on other manufacturing industries than pharmaceutical firms.

This research aims to investigate the determinants of business performance in Vietnam small and medium sized firms. The study employs a sample of 100 construction-listed enterprises in the Vietnam Stock Market. The author collects data on time series of October 2020 based on the financial statement and annual reports of the Vietnam construction listed companies. The survey data are collected by email and internet sources. This study also identifies the factors that affect the business performance enterprises in Vietnam. The author processed data via STATA 14.0 and SPSS 20.0 software. The research results indicate that (1) government support policies, (2) education level of enterprises owner, (3) enterprises scale, (4) society relationships of enterprises and (5) revenue growth rate affect the business performance of construction- listed enterprises in Vietnam. In addition, the government support policies, education level of enterprises owner, enterprises scale, society relationships of enterprises and revenue growth rate have positive impact on business performance of the Vietnam Construction Listed Companies. In which, education level of enterprises owner and government support policies have mostly positive impacts on business performance. The findings of this study also suggest that the education level of enterprise owners is the highest impact to business performance of the construction- listed firm in Vietnam.

This present study intends to analyze the factors affecting the performance of the local government of North Sulawesi. The population of this study includes the members of the Regional People’s Representative Assembly and the leaders of Regional Apparatus Organizations managing the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD). Those Regional Apparatus Organizations include Education and Culture Office, Health Office, Regional Revenue Service, Tourism Office, Public Works Office, and Auditor Inspectorate of North Sulawesi Province. The sampling technique used is the saturated sampling technique. Data collection techniques employed consist of an interview, documentation study, and questionnaire dissemination. The analysis is conducted using Partial Least Square (PLS). Based on the analysis, we found that public participation has a significant effect on the transparency of financial management; the internal control system has a significant effect on local government performance; the internal control system has a significant effect on public accountability; the internal control system has a significant effect on the quality of financial reports, and public accountability has a significant effect on the performance of local governments. However, public participation has no significant effect on local government performance; public participation has no significant effect on public accountability; public participation has no significant effect on the quality of financial reports; the internal control system has no significant effect on financial management transparency; financial management transparency has no significant effect on local government performance, and the quality of financial reports has no significant effect on local government performance. This study also reveals that public accountability is the mediating variable between the internal control system and local government performance.

This paper is an empirical testing of the association between Cost Standard-Setting (PSS) on Work Performance (WP), mediated With Information Asymmetry (IA), and Goal Complexity (GC). It is a rule of thumb that PSS setting can lower the level of IA and GC between the managers and the employees and leads to better WP. The present work uses a path model to measure the direct, indirect, and spurious effect between the dependent and independent variables of this study. Data were collected from ten corporate firms in Iraq via a pre-designed questionnaire survey, the questionnaire forms were distributed randomly to the firm’s top management personnel, departmental managers, engineers, accountants, and administrators who are involved in PSS. Around 350 forms were distributed for data collection, however, only 198 forms were considered for this analysis, the rest of the forms were discarded due to incompleteness or missing values. The findings of the study showed a significant direct effect of PSS on WP. Likewise, there was clear evidence of an indirect effect via the mediating variables (IA and GC). The influence of IA and GC confirms the strong association between the independent variable (PSS) on the dependent variable (WP).

This study investigates whether Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) is affected by IFRS convergence and social value in a country that has strict societal norms (Saudi Arabia). Using a sample of 292 Saudi manufacturing and utilities firms listed on the Saudi Capital Market during the period of 2015-2019, the study finds that IFRS convergence is not related to the CSD of the Saudi manufacturing and utilities firms. On the other hand, social values (as modeled by adopting CSD as a strategic objective) are significantly related to CSD. These results provide evidence supporting the view that CSD is influenced by social values rather than the change in the corporate disclosure environment in countries that exhibit strong conformity to societal values, such as Saudi Arabia. Overall, the current study adds to an understanding of the factors that determine CSD outside the shareholder-stakeholder orientation model.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is undeniable that many companies are experiencing a decline in turnover, and some companies have even been forced to go out of business. Due to the many fraud incidents, corporate governance is vital in ensuring earnings persistence by considering many audit committee structures. Based on this phenomenon, the purpose of this study is to determine how significant the role of corporate governance is in overcoming earnings persistence moderated by the number of audit committees. This study is quantitative descriptive with a population of all companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Index (IDX), and the number of samples with several criteria found as many as six companies. This research period was conducted from 2011-2019. This result implies a positive influence on corporate governance moderated by the audit committee on earnings persistence. This led to point out that the power of corporate governance has a positive effect on earnings persistence.

Under the conditions of intense competitive struggle, integrated assessment methods are gaining increasingly greater importance in the processes of information and analytical support of enterprise development management. Enterprise competitiveness is one of the most universal, and, consequently, methodological and applied features among such generalizing characteristics. However, almost all of the approaches used are characterized by both significant advantages and certain disadvantages as of the date. This study develops a system of information and analytical support for managing enterprise competitiveness in the market of fast moving consumer goods, where competition is near the highest. The author's approach for assessing the competitiveness status of enterprises is developed. For this purpose, a system of indicators is determined, which reveal comprehensively and systematically the main parameters of competitiveness according to its structural components, or subsystems: (1) personnel, (2) property, (3) commodity, (4) organizational. The peculiarity of the approach includes the combination of the method of enterprise position rating in the market, and expert survey, which ends with presentation of the results using the graphical method. Summarizing approbation of the developed methodological approach to the assessment of enterprise competitiveness status, the results allow to allocate the leader enterprises, enterprises of average level of competitiveness, enterprises of attack zones and lost opportunities, and outsider enterprises are obtained. The results include the possibility of implementing a new better and more comprehensive approach for analyzing the status of competitiveness of competing enterprises, which serves as a significant information and analytical basis for policy planning to strengthen the competitive position of businesses for the consumer goods market.

This study aims to examine the role of human capital, which is part of intellectual capital, as a mediator in the relationship between audit committee expertise and the number of audit committee meetings with real earnings management. This research is a quantitative study. The data source used is data from manufacturing companies in Indonesia. The sample selection technique used purposive sampling. The analysis technique uses path analysis. The results showed that the expertise of the audit committee had a significant effect on human capital, while the number of audit meetings had no effect on human capital. The results of this study also state that audit committee expertise, number of audit committee meetings and human capital performance have no effect on real earnings management actions. Furthermore, there is empirical evidence that shows that human capital has a mediating effect on the relationship between audit committee expertise and the number of audit committee meetings with real earnings management. The role of human capital in the relationship between the expertise of the audit committee and the number of audit committee meetings becomes originality, so it is the main contribution of research. The limitation of this research is that it only uses human capital as a mediating variable.